Keegan Swenson Sets New 'Everesting' Record
XC World Cup racer Keegan Swenson has broken the 'Everesting' record after he ascended 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) in just seven hours, 40 minutes.
The reigning US XC national champion found the challenge "one of the hardest things I've ever done on the bike" with Swenson managing to take 12 minutes off the previous record which was set by Phil Gaimon a week before.
To achieve this feat Swenson wanted to find a climb that would provide a good balance between height gained and distance. He eventually settled on a section of the Pine Canyon Rd. climb in Midway, Utah, this would provide a height gain of 311.81 meters (1,023 feet) over a distance of 2.93 kilometers (1.82 miles). To complete the challenge Swenson had to repeat the route 28 times.
The challenge which first began in 1994 sees riders try to climb the elevation of Everest, 8848 meters, on their bikes in the shortest time possible. Swenson and his friend Ryan Standish took on the challenge last week as a fundraiser for the charity Bike MS which is a fundraising event for the National MS Society.
 | Yesterdays Everest FKT attempt was definitely one of the hardest things I’ve ever done on a bike. On par with White Rim for sure! Here’s some nerdy stuff for y’all that are interested: Total distance/elevation 104.5 miles and 29,680ft (I corrected the elevation on Strava). The segment I picked (“Gate to first switch” on Pine Canyon road) 1.82 miles long, started at about 5900 and finished around 6900ft (1023ft exactly) and it averaged 11% with a max gradient of 22.9%. It took about 13-14.5min and I tried to average about 270-280w each rep. Then I’d flip around and rip that same segment, fastest descent was 2:10 and my max speed was 58.6 mph (sorry Tanya Swenson). Huge thank you to everyone that donated to Bike MS and to everyone that came out to support Ryan Standwich and I! Also, massive thank you to my parents who were out there from 8am till 5pm handing out bottles and food for us!! Could not have done it without you guys. |
Check out our partner site, Cycling Tips, who chatted to Swenson just after he set the new record.
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Nice work Keegan, you are a machine.
At almost 100km/h it must be on a road bike.
sorry...I didn't catch that, say again
Clean your eyeballs out, Sir!
www.pinkbike.com/news/everesting-self-propelled-29029-vertical-feet-of-climbing-in-24-hours-at-highland-mountain-bike-park.html
That’s like someone breaking the world record for pushups, but they did it by being on a surface that bounces them back up instead of the floor.